Thursday, March 1, 2012

RIP Andrew Breitbart

Like many other conservatives who are active in the blogosphere / new media - first as a reader / commentator and now as a blogger - I was stunned this morning to wake up to the news that Andrew Breitbart passed away overnight.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.

Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.

Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.

Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.

Going through the blogosphere, there are some very touching observations, remembrances, and testimonials to Andrew Breitbart. Unfortunately, there are also sites and bloggers who are highlighting the vile tweets and comments from those of the left who despised Andrew Breitbart for his stands and support of conservatism. They are demonstrating the depths of their moral and intellectual bankruptcy in their comments...and making the case that Andrew fought so hard, with so much vigor, and enjoyment to make.

I'm going to highlight some of the comments, observations, and remembrances celebrating Andrew Breitbart. These recall his energy and enjoyment to be doing what he wanted to be doing - his willingness to stand tall for what he believed in, fought the fight he believed in, and did so for the country he loved. We have lost someone who set a strong example for us to follow - and our best tribute to honor and celebrate Andrew Breitbart is to follow his example.

My deepest condolences go to his wife and 4 daughters who lost a husband and father at a far too young of an age. I also send my condolences to his wide circle of friends across the blogosphere, across new and old media, and the political spectrum who lost a fellow warrior, a leader, and an example.

DEAR READER: In the first decade of the DRUDGEREPORT Andrew Breitbart was a constant source of energy, passion and commitment. We shared a love of headlines, a love of the news, an excitement about what's happening. I don't think there was a single day during that time when we did not flash each other or laugh with each other, or challenge each other. I still see him in my mind's eye in Venice Beach, the sunny day I met him. He was in his mid 20's. It was all there. He had a wonderful, loving family and we all feel great sadness for them today... MDRUDGE

I met Andrew Breitbart in 2005 when I was asked to write for the Huffingtpon Post. He was running the show. Everyone who knew him - left and right - said he was brilliant, eccentric, one of a kind. I instantly fell in love with the guy. To this day, i've never met anyone as fearless. He was my first guest on Redeye, a show I got largely because he told people about me. He became a cheerleader for my work, but more important, a dear close friend I could confide in, about anything. My wife called him the wizard, for he could conjure up anything at any time with limitless energy.

He's the only person I know who operated without a safety net. He always knew things would turn out the way they were supposed to - so he didn't worry about money or, i guess, his health, too much.

He was the spiritual leader of the modern conservative, libertarian cause. He was immersed in pop culture and wished to drag the right into the modern world - knowing this is how America speaks to the world. He was the heart of the matter. The fighter. Losing him is like a fiery planet going dark.

I stood off to the side before I went out into the seating area opposite Professor Michael Eric Dyson, a race-bating sociology professor, and opposite Maher, in a hostile crowd. I went in, and it was a worst-case scenario, and the entire time I kept doubling-down on standing up for what I believe in. I defended Rush Limbaugh on the false charges of racism, I defended the Tea Party on the false charges of racism, the crowd booed me, Sarah Silverman mocked me, the audience interrupted me before I could get my sentences out.

But their boos, I got to sneer at the smirks from Bill Maher, and it was singularly hideous. I went back to my dressing room where friends and family were, and it was like a funeral. They started to rationalize how my life would eventually come back to me over months, perhaps years, and they thought it was like the death of my career, the end of my self-respect and dignity.

I looked at them and I basically looked at myself because I was starting to realize something interesting had happened. I looked at them and said “you don’t understand, that was the best moment of my entire life because I recognized the thing that I feared the most,” wholesale rejection from that many people, perhaps millions in the audience, watching on the television, the majority of the crowd, the popular host, the guest, Sarah Silverman, lovely, funny comedian that I like her type of work. Everyone rejected me, and it was an exultant moment, because I realized, yeah, it’s fun to be liked, but when standing up for what you believe in, it’s also very fun not to be liked.

It was with great sadness that I heard this morning Andrew Breitbart passed away from natural causes at the young age of 43. Our first thoughts turn to his family: his wife Susie and his four children. He loved them with the same passion he had for his crusades on behalf of freedom.

The prayers of the Heritage family are with them.

This is a loss for the entire country. The cause of truth and freedom will be without one of its biggest champions.

Andrew was fearless. He took on the entrenched powers of liberalism in this country, whether they were in the media, academia, unions or elsewhere, with a zest that was infectious. He had the unmistakable mark of a leader, showing others where they needed to do battle through the force of his own example.

Andrew was also an intellectual, though, and that is indeed a very rare combination. In his last book, properly titled “Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World,” he shined a needed light on the origins of the leftist threat to our freedoms. One such example was the FrankfurtSchool, a mid-20th century invasion of European Marxist academics who realized that taking over our universities would be the first step in seizing our brightest minds. I remember him sitting with me in my office while he was conducting this research and telling me with his trademark fascination about all he was finding out.

When a whirlwind dies, there is a sudden quiet. Los Angeles this morning is deathly silent.

Christian Adams doesn’t usually phone me at 6:20AM. What’s this, I thought grumpily, ringing him back on my iPhone. And now I sit hurriedly typing in my office where Andrew Breitbart, a man many years younger than I and twenty times more energetic, would sit with me half a dozen years ago or more when we we first met, typing out his end of the Drudge Report while gossiping non-stop and downing a soda.

He was astonishing even then. He would say to me, “You know, bloggers don’t know how to write headlines.” He was right, of course, and I wondered if he was talking about me. I was one of those bloggers, struggling to get a few hundred hits against the massive traffic he and Drudge were generating.

Among his many talents, Andrew was a brilliant headline writer.

And then came awesome entrepreneurship, spawning web sites the way guppies spawn babies — a man born of the Internet and born for it.

No more. Andrew Breitbart dead at 43.

My condolences to his wife and children.

My condolences to the conservative world.

My condolences to America, which has lost one of its truly great patriots. Andrew, more than anything, cared about his country. He worked for it non-stop. And now he has given his life for it.

RIP.

There are many more tributes and remembrances from other prominent bloggers and conservatives who were fortunate to count Andrew as one of their friends. One noted that Andrew probably had 10 friends for every enemy. Read them all. Ignore the vile and the hate from the left or from his enemies...their actions reflect on them, not on Andrew Breitbart or his positions and actions.

In closing, I will repeat one comment from Roger L. Simon which expresses so well what I am experiencing..and I was only a reader / fan of Andrew:

When a whirlwind dies, there is a sudden quiet. Los Angeles this morning is deathly silent.

About Me

I've been commenting on various blogs and subscription sites since early 2002 - adding my observations, thoughts, and musings on local, state, and national politics, national security, international relations, the economy, and other topics interest me. Until 2009, I was most active on LittleGreenFootballs before being driven off. Since then, I've been fighting idiotarians on BillOReilly.com and other sites...